At 50, I've been a constant contact lense wearer for about 20 years (short sighted). First got glasses, with a very low prescription, in my late 20's and rarely wore them for about 3 years, moatly due to feeling really self conscious with this new look (after years of perfect vision growing up). Got contacts once prescription increased to the extent that I did not meet eyesight requirements for driving without glasses or contacts. Glasses as a back up but only ever worn for a couple of hours at home on rare occasions over the years. Never worn them to work or for social events.
Fast forward to age 47 and the shock of realising small print wasn't as clear with contacts in (still perfect with my naked eyes). Multi focal contacts don't work for me, despite persevering for about 6 months. Have been doing monovision for two years and now at 50 have gradually been wearing varifocal glasses occassionally, particularly for night time driving. Getting increasingly irritated to realise that distance is much better with the glasses. I know the distance issue would be solved by going back to distance contacts and succumbing to reading glasses over them. But I have always felt that it is such a sign of old age creeping up when it becomes necessary to whip out reading glasses every few minutes. Optician is happy to prescribe either or both options. For the best clarity, despite feeling self conscious in glasses, I think full time varifocal glasses might be preferable to the contacts and reading glasses combo.
I currently have two pairs of varifocals that I probably like more than any others that I've had over the years. I'm absolutely not into the trend of chunky dark frames and tend to choose discreet thin metal frames.
I don't get an objective opinion from nearest and dearest on whether or not glasses are an improvement on my regular face and the extent of how self conscious I am about the bespectacled look isn't really appreciated. I'd love to hear if any of you have similar hang ups about switching to glasses at the grand old age of 50 and your opinion on whether or not glasses generally improve a middle aged woman's appearance.
For some context, I have pretty low self esteem about my looks and don't want to make myself feel even more insecure. I'm a bit overweight, have a 'chubby' face, brown shoulder length hair and tend to prefer a casual look - barely there make up, jeans, ankle boots, with casual or dressy tops or casual blazer type jackets. Even in my professional role, I can get away with a smarter casual version of the same style. I don't like to draw attention to myself in terms of what I wear or how I style my hair. On a positive note, people who don't know me generally think that I'm in my early 40's (at least the non glasses wearing version of me).
The two pairs of glasses that I've been wearing a little bit more are in the attached photos (both slight cateye, one a brown metal semi rimless and the other a full frame metal brown with blueish bottom portion). Opinions please on whether or not they're seriously old fashioned or acceptable in 2024. Not going to post a photo of myself wearing them, but on a good day with decent hair styling, I sometimes feel they improve my chubby face and improve the proportions, and maybe even knock a few years off.